Hi, there all, I’m bugging you again about the AIDS Walk Austin. So, the economy sucks, those of us with jobs are really grateful just to have them…… And here’s me, with my hand out, too. Well, not my hand. Well, yes, my hand, but I’m seeking donations to benefit men & women in Austin & Travis County who are living with HIV/AIDS. This year will be the 25th AIDS Walk Austin – all those years of benefitting people living with HIV & AIDS in Austin & Travis County. The agencies also do prevention & education, so that the population of persons affected does not continue to grow. I’m going to talk about the Walk, and about some other stuff I’m doing & there’s a song involved. If you want to skip that part, here’s my AIDS Walk Austin page. Please donate if you can.
So the guys at AIDS Services of Austin are helping us make videos this year. Here’s mine, where I tell why I walk: .
Right now, I’m training for a fall triathlon or 2 (I did 3 this spring/summer — sprint distance, not olympic & definitely not half iron — & I’m looking at ones in August & September) and a half-marathon in February and I have my “getting ready for the race” CD playing in my car whenever I’m in it. It’s a short playlist of familiar, upbeat songs that I like having in my head when I’m trying to do something impossible. If you catch a ride with me somewhere, you’d better like U2, a lot. And the song, the one that make me feel like I can do anything, is City of Blinding Lights. Listen to this song, and tell me you don’t feel the same:
My goal this year is $5,000, which is asking a whole lot. Like I said before, those of us who even have jobs at all are either feeling lucky or looking at lots of former co-workers who’ve been laid off. And all the campaigns need our money, and there have been several Kossacks who have needed our help. But people with AIDS still need our help. Imagine how scary layoffs are for people with a dreaded preexisting condition, one requiring medications that cost $1500 a month or more. Surely we can at least buy one person’s meds for 2 months. Here’s my AIDS Walk Austin page.
City of Blinding Lights makes me feel like anything is possible. Like it is possible for AIDS agencies to have all the funding they need. I imagine people who need help actually getting all the help they need. I imagine people getting educated about disease prevention. Agencies that help people are all being asked to do more with less. Some elected officials just really seem not to care about people who are ill at all. Even in liberal cities like Austin, resources are being stretched thinner and thinner. But you can help, here’s my AIDS Walk Austin page.
I’m playing this song in my head, trying to get psyched up to do multiple impossible things. I’d like to finish the the tris in less than 3 hours and the half marathon in less than 4 and I really want to raise more than $5,000 and the biggest goal – be the top fundraiser for the Walk. I was the top fundraiser for the Ride a couple of years ago, and for the Walk a couple of years ago. I don’t think I savored either experience enough, so I want to try again. And having done the Walk for 25 years, I really want to make a special effort for this year. Can you help me meet (or beat) that $5,000 goal? The top fundraiser right now has already raised over a thousand dollars, and it isn’t even August, so it’ll take some doing to catch up and I have a feeling she’ll remain competitive. What do I get if I am the top fundraiser? The knowledge that I helped a lot of people. Probably a special t-shirt. I mostly just want to help people, and, ok – to win. I’m not going to win any of the races I enter, but this is something I can do. I really appreciate your donations, and so do people in Austin who are living with HIV & AIDS.
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